Creating ProgPower UK: An Interview with Jon Hoare

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The ProgPower festival has been running in the USA for four years. Two one-day events in March and November 2001 were so successful, ProgPower is now an annual fixture in the US festival timetable. Following this success in America, the ProgPower team brought the festival to Europe in 2002, holding the first annual two-day event in October in Baarlo, Holland. In 2004, ProgPower USA became a two-day event and this year, a pre-party show has been added to ProgPower Europe.

The idea of ProgPower is to have a festival devoted entirely to progressive and power metal. The majority of the World’s progressive and especially power metal comes from Europe, so the events are very successful in the US because it’s the only chance American fans get to see some of the bands on show, and in Europe because of the popularity of the genres. ProgPower USA 2005 is already sold out. Over the last four years, the festival has seen many of the best bands in both genres play at least once, including Symphony X, Blind Guardian, The Gathering, Nightwish, Evergrey, Devin Townsend, Kamelot and Brainstorm. This year sees Pain of Salvation, Epica, Green Carnation and Pagan’s Mind top the billing in Europe, with Angra, Stratovarius, Conception and Therion leading the way in the US.

Next year marks the next step in the evolution of ProgPower. The first ever ProgPower UK will be held on March 25th at The Centaur, the new venue at Cheltenham Racecourse. Seven bands will take the stage throughout the day, headlined by Therion and Threshold. Rounding out the bill are Freedom Call, Pagan’s Mind, Orphaned Land (also playing the US event), Firewind and one more band to be confirmed. The event is set to host a huge “metal market” and will feature a videowall and a specially commissioned sampler CD which will be given to all ticket holders free of charge on the day.

The two men responsible for bringing ProgPower to the UK are Jon Hoare and Sean Hetherington. Both are musicians themselves, which gave them a unique insight into the prospects ProgPower had for being a success in the UK (Jon plays bass in Mercury Rain and Sean is the vocalist in Intense).

“I think that Steve Williams (Power Quest) had the idea a long time ago to bring one or two prog and power bands over from Europe for a show, and I guess that it was that that got us thinking. I came up with the idea of ‘franchising’ the ‘ProgPower’ name for the UK, and with Sean on board, we started planning back in December 2004. Why build a festival name up from scratch when you can get instant recognition with ‘ProgPower’? It may not be ‘Ozzfest’ or ‘Download’ but with three ProgPower’s worldwide, we will all benefit and the organisation will become stronger. With Bloodstock, Thirteenth Day, Firefest and all those kinds of festivals proving that these indoor events can work well in the UK, we figure that the demand is there for ProgPower. Sean and I are basically putting together a show that we would both choose to go to. A great venue, a good mix of bands, no travel or parking issues – a quality event, run by fans and musicians. We’re putting bands on in an awesome venue that will do them justice. The last time Therion played the UK was to 500 people at the Garage – they could barely fit all of them on the stage. This will be some change! ProgPower also gives us the opportunity to do some ‘firsts’ for the UK – Pagans Mind and Orphaned Land currently have their first UK shows here, and we are especially proud of that.”

The future prospects for growth of the festival look very good indeed. With all the other rock and metal festivals in the UK clearly having their focus on a different direction, the market is wide open for an event like ProgPower to expand year on year and become as successful as its US and European counterparts. The ProgPower organisation clearly saw the potential that Jon and Sean saw:

“They didn’t take much persuading as such, we just had to agree to a couple of requests around festival timing – things like that – and that was about it. They were very receptive, as I think that they saw that we are fans and musicians first and foremost, not a commercial organisation. ProgPower UK is set up properly and run as a business of course as there is a lot of money involved, but the overall drive is to make the festival a success for the bands and the fans. I believe that Rene Jansen (ProgPower Europe) will be attending ProgPower UK as one of our special guests.”

“If we can attract a similar loyal fanbase, we think it will work every year and become a feature on the calendar. The fan support is everything to us. We run the ‘Platinum Pass’ scheme, and all 100 were sold within eight days. Not too bad for a festival which was over 10 months away at the time. I don’t know if it can enjoy a greater level of success than Europe or the USA, but we certainly have room to expand at the Cheltenham venue, and if the demand is there for Progressive and Power metal, we will take it as far as we can. We will not be as diverse as maybe Bloodstock is becoming, but that is not what we’re about – we will be working within the Prog and Power remit set by the other ProgPower festivals. We’ve been very careful with the planning of this event, and that should ensure that it builds year-on-year, in a realistic way.”

With most progressive and power metal bands rarely playing the UK, save for Dream Theater, ProgPower is set to provide a haven for the fans, as well as a chance to see bands they’ve never seen before. The months of effort and work put in by Jon, Sean and the team have setup a unique opportunity and a festival that is guaranteed to please all the fans of both genres, whether they attend or not. The exposure it will give to this kind of music will be unparalleled in the UK.

Written by Andy Lye
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